Door assembly and holder mechanism



June 30, 1953 A; SCHWARTZ DOOR ASSEMBLY AND HOLDER MECHANISM Filed Oct..14, 1950 INVENTOR. (BE KT SC'f/WIRTZ BY J M106 6 Patented June 30, 1953UNITED STATES PTENT QFFECE DOOR ASSEMBLY AND HOLDER MECHANISM 1 Claim. 1

The present invention relates to mechanism for opening a verticallyswinging door of the'type used for garages and the like, and is acontinuation in part of applicants copending application Serial No.33,455, now abandoned.

An object of my invention is to providea door opening and supportmechanism capable of holding up a comparatively heavy door by means ofan improved compact telescoping strut mechanism that is at onceinexpensive and easy to install.

Another object of my invention is to provide door opening means whichpermit a door to be swung outwardly with the support mechanism beingdisposed adjacent the sides of the door frame and protected from theweather by the extended door.

Also an object of my invention is the provision of a door openingapparatus that can be easily operated by either man or woman with aminimum of effort.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, saidinvention,then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claim; the annexed drawing and the followingdescription setting forth in along the lines 4& of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view in section of the strut mechanism showingthe latching mechanism above the latched position;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view showing the latching means when the strutis held in extended position;

Fig. '7 is a fragmentary view along the line '!"i of Fig. 1; and

Fig. dis a diagrammatic showing of the strut position relative to theplane passing through door hinge and frame mounting.

Particularly in those sections of the country where ice and snow areseasonal problems, in recent years the overhead garage door has becomeincreasingly popular and is to a large extent apparently supplanting theold type of vertically hinged, outward opening doors.

Iii) Several varieties of the so-called overhead door have been evolved,among which are the jointed or segmented type and the one-piece kind,both of which operate on a pair of overhead tracks in conjunction withheavy large springs. Many of these inwardly opening overhead door typesoperate satisfactorily, but most are quite expensive, and the trackapparatus, support brackets, springs, etc, constitute cumbersomeadditions to upper garage space that might otherwise be more profitablyused.

To combat the disadvantages of overhead door types heretofore employed,I have invented a comp-act, simple and reliable door opening mechanismwhich requires no bulky track apparatus within the garage, yet whichopens and supports a door outwardly of the garage in a novel andeffective manner.

Referring now to the drawings, I have shown a door frame 29 havingvertical jamb members 2! and doorhead member 23. Pivotally hinged todoorhead 23 is a door 25, adapted to be swung outwardly on hinge 25 asshown in Figs. 2 and 3. In the closed position, as indicated in Fig. 2,the door is adapted to seat against an abutting doorstep strip orshoulder 24 in the door frame in conventional manner.

Attached to the door at a. point not more than one-quarter of thevertical length of the door measured from the top are a pair ofextension arms or bracket members 21 which project inwardly of the doorand which are rigidly mounted thereon. These bracket .members 21' arepref- .erably'mounted so that'they will extend at least perpendicularlyto the door, and I have found that the angle shownjin Fig. 2 is verysatisfactory, as will be explained more fully hereinafter. The length ofthe brackets may vary, of course, but they do have an importantrelationship with the depth of the vertical frame members of the door,since I find it is advantageous to have the bracket end extend inwardlyof the door frame.

Upon the inside of the door frame 2! and spaced inboard. of the verticalplane passing through the door hinge which is mounted outboard of thedoor stop strip is secured a support .member 28 and mounted therein is abracket stand 29. This bracket assembly is preferably positioned about aquarter or shortly less of the way up the frame from the bottom, as isshown in Figs. 1, 2, and. 3, but this position may vary,

inner member 3% which members are preferably tubular with the member362) being adapted to telescope inside the member 360.. As the door israised strut 36a will be extended relative to strut 30b and when thedoor is lowered the struts will be telescoped.

Within the strut 30a and between the ends of the strut members,compression springs 32 are mounted so that the weight of the door may becounterbalanced to facilitate handling of the door.

To hold the door in an open position, I have provided a simple latchingmechanism indicated generally at 33. Inner strut 30b is provided with anelongated slot 34 in one side thereof and a latch member 36 is pivotallymounted inside the strut on an angle pin 3'! so that a portion of themember may extend through the slot 34 when the latch 36 is rotated to apredetermined position as shown in Fig. 5. Latch 35 has a jaw formation38 and an abutment portion 39 which extends laterally from the base ofthe jaw 38 and projects outwardly over the jaw. The jaw and abutment areadapted to extend through the slot 34 so that the jaw will receive loweredge 41 of the outer strut 36a, and at the same time abutment 39 willengage the inner surface of the outer strut and effectively hold thelatch in the position shown in Fig. 6 where the outer strut is supportedin an extended position.

Latch 36 is preferably biased angularly in a position in which the jaw38 and abutment 39 project through slot 34, and I have found itdesirable to accomplish this by a weight 52 attached to latch 36 by abail 43.

A slot 45 is provided in outer strut 390: which is adapted to registerwith slot 34 as the door is moved to the latching position, as may beforeseen in Fig. 5, and the length of the slot 55 is such as to permitswinging of the jaw and abutment of the latch from one side to the otherof the center of this slot as the door is moved to an elevated position.

When the door is in the closed position the latch 35 will be in theposition shown in Fig. 4 and as the door is elevated toward the latchingposition, slot 45 will first be moved into registration with slot 34 andthe weight 42 will cause the latch 36 to rotate counterclockwise. As thedoor is elevated further the lower edge 46 of the slot 45 engages theabutment 39 and rotates the member 36 counterclockwise to permitcontinued outward movement of the strut member 30a. When the lower edge4! of the strut 36a reaches the level of the jaw 38 weight 42 swingsmember 36 to position the jaw beneath the edge 4! and the abutment 36against the inside of strut 30a. The door is then released so that itsweight is supported on jaw 38 and member 33 is held in the doorsupporting position by abutment 36 engaging the inner side of strut 36a.

To release the latch the door is raised so that the lower end of strut36a is elevated beyond abutment 39 as indicated in Fig. 5 and thenweight 42 causes member 36 to rotate clockwise, whereupon the door maybe lowered with strut member a turning the latch member clockwise. Asslot 45 passes slot 34 the upper edge of slot 45 will engage theabutment 39 and rotate the latch member clockwise to prevent latching ofthe door.

In order that undue strain will not be placed upon the struts, hinge anddoor when the latter is in an extended position in the event that strongwinds should tend to lift the door upwardly, I have provided a safetychain appropriately secured to the upper strut 36a at 5! and being at- 4tached to the lower strut 3% by means of a bolt 52 extending throughsaid strut. The length of the chain is preferably such that the doorcannot open beyond a predetermined distance beyond the normal extendedheight when the door is resting on the latch member 36 as describedhereinabove.

As a further or alternative safety measure I have provided a springactuated pin lock indicated generally at 53 having a pin 54 mounted in acasing 55 secured to strut 30a. Through an opening in the wall of strut30a the inner end of the pin bears normally against the outer wall ofstrut 30b. Above the normal latched position of the struts as shown inFig. 6 there is provided an opening 51. When the struts have extendedbeyond the latched position to the plate where the inner end of the pin54 comes in register with the opening 5'! spring 58 moves lock pin 54into the opening 51, thus locking the strut members together to preventfurther extension. To unlock, the plunger pin 54 is manually retracted.

It will, of course, be appreciated that other means to limit the uppermovement of the door may be employed, but I have found that the safetymeans discussed above are very satisfactory in the strut arrangementthat I have devised, although, except in unusual circumstances, only oneof these limiting means will be provided for as an additionalprecautionary safety measure.

The advantages of my improved door opening means are perhaps mostclearly explained in terms of operation. It will be observed that in theclosed position as seen in Fig. 2, the strut mechanism 36 issubstantially parallel to the frame of the door and pivot brackets 2'!and 29 are so positioned that the struts 30 are located inside the doorframe.

The diagram shown in Fig. 8 will indicate that the line I-IB,representing the plane passing through door hinge 26 and the lower pivotsupport 29, illustrates the strut position in a plane common theretowherein spring 32 is subjected to maximum compression and where thestrut members are in the most compacted position. At either side of thisplane the spring 32 will tend to rotate the door about the hinge 26.

It will be apparent that in the closed position of the door spring 32will be exerting upward pressure against the bracket 2'! thus tending torotate the door inwardly. This pressure is sufficient to keep the doortight against stop member 24 in the door frame and to hold the doorclosed against any wind currents that might otherwise tend to flutterthe door open and shut in the lower portion.

As explained above, I have preferably given to bracket 21 a length thatwill bring its pivot end inside the door frame and into verticalalignment with bracket 29. It will, however, be apparent that the lengthof bracket 21 may be varied so long as in the door closed position strut30 will be disposed on a line inwardly of the center line HB 50 thatspring 32 will be off center and will tend to hold the door closed. Iprefer to have the bracket arm mounted at an angle that is slightly morethan to the door and at an angle that will be in substantially parallelalignment with the struts when the latter are in extended position asindicated in Fig. 3.

In order to open the door, a handle is provided on the outside as shownat 60. A slight outward pull is necessary to overcome the holdingpressure exerted by spring 32 and to bring the struts past the centerline HB. Pressure of the spring will then rotate the door about hinge 26and bring the door without further manual effort to the positionindicated by the lower broken line 0. At this position the weight of thedoor is balanced by the spring pressure, but the door is not yet in thelatched position indicated at L.

To bring the latch mechanism into operation, the outer door end is givena slight upward lift to the position indicated at T and the door is thenallowed to settle back into the latched position L on the links asindicated in Fig. 6. In this latched position the weight of the door isgreater than the effective spring pressure and hence the excess Weightis carried by the latch. The excess weight of the door in the latchedposition is very advantageous since normal gusts of wind will not besuflicient to lift the door up- Wardly to either disconnect the latchmechanism or strain the entire apparatus.

Provision against the effect of unusually strong winds is made throughthe limiting action of the chain 50 and/or through plunger lock 53, asexplained before.

To take the door off the links and to disengage the latch mechanism, thedoor is lifted slightly permitting latch 36 first to rotate clockwise(Fig. 5) and then to swing inwardly as strut 38a. moves over 30b as inFig. 4.

Once the door is unlatched, it will settle to the normal balanced openposition 0. Manual force is then applied downwardly upon the end of thedoor until the handle can be conveniently reached and then the handle ispushed past the centerline HB to the closed position.

Closing the door against the spring pressure is a comparatively easymaneuver since the distance from the downward effort to the resistancelocated now at S, or where bracket 2'5 is attached to the door, is somuch greater than the length of the resistance arm which may beidentified as HS. The weight of the door itself, being concentrated atthe center of gravity located well outward of the resistance, of course,lessens the amount of downward effort that need be applied.

As an example of the relationships which I have used in a door of aparticular size, the following structural information may be helpful.

With a 7'6" x 7'6" door Weighing approximately 175 pounds, I have used afiat spring thick with an O. D. of 1%" which has 1 11 I coils and a freelength of 53%;. Bracket 28 is mounted about 15" from the bottom of theframe and bracket 27 is positioned on the door at a point about onefifth of the vertical length of the door measured from the top.

From the closed to the open position of the door on the latch the strutsexpand about 12". In the open position, as indicated at O, the springsexert about 219 pounds per spring and in the latched position thesprings have about 202 pounds pressure each.

In this example the door opens to about 5'8" through spring action toreach position 0. The door is manually lifted another 7 or 8" toposition T and allowed to settle back to the latched 6 height L of about6'1. I have found that the total outward swing of the struts should beabout 20 of are for this size door.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that a principal and diiiicultproblem solved with this invention is the provision of a compact strutassembly that is operable within the positional and practicallimitations set forth. The provision of a strut assembly that will holdthe door closed on the inward side of the centerline HB and support thedoor open on the outer side thereof, while at the same time beingcompactly disposed on the door frame and substantially close to the topof the door and hence out of the way is a very considerable advantage.The utilization in such an arrangement of a spring powerful enough toopen a comparatively heavy door yet compressible with the leverageavailable with relatively slight effort has not before been successfullyaccomplished in the novel way I have provided.

Although I have described but one form of the invention, it will beunderstood that other forms might be adopted, all falling within thescope of the claim which follows:

I claim:

In a vertically hanging door assembly and holder apparatus therefor inwhich the door swings upwardly about a horizontal pivot at its upperedge, the combination comprising a door frame including a frame head andan abutting door stop strip, a door pivoted to said frame head at oneside of the door stop strip, a bracket secured to said frame at theother side of said stop strip, an extension arm rigidly mounted on saiddoor at the upper portion thereof and projecting inwardly away from saiddoor pivot to a point inwardly of a plane intersecting said door pivotand bracket, two telescopic members movable relative to one another andhaving opposite ends connected to the extension arm and to said framebracket respectively, a compression spring between said telescopicmembers biasing the telescopic members to extended position, andautomatic latch means carried by said telescopic members and operable tolatch the telescopic members in extended position to hold the door inopen position, said compression spring normally biasing the door to openposition when the pivot between the extension arm and telescopic membersis on one side of the plane intersecting the door and bracket pivot andbiasing said door to closed position when said pivot is on the oppositeside of said plane.

ALBERT SCHWARTZ.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 829,385 Brennan Aug. 28, 1906 1,712,648 Campbell May 14, 19291,727,723 Mathauer Sept. 10, 1929 2,253,161 Atwood Aug. 19, 1941

